Category Archives: Master and PhD in Geramny

This is a copy-paste from a post published today by DAAD Jordan’s facebook page:

DAAD proudly presents its brand new brochure of its next intake for its Master portfolio “Developing-Related Postgraduate Courses”!!!

The funding line comprises 36 English Master programmes at different German universities in the fields Economic Sciences, Development Cooperation, Engineering,Mathematics, Regional Planning, Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, Public Health, Social Sciences and Media Studies. All programmes are open for Jordanian applicants and there is full scholarships available. Note: Applications have to be directed to the respective university and NOT to the DAAD. All information on the programmes can be found here : http://www.scribd.com/doc/135838156/Postgraduate-Courses-2015-16 Application deadlines differ from programme to programme but most deadlines are between September and October. Good luck with your application!

# Prerequisites and Requirements for DAAD scholarhships: Are you eligible for a DAAD scholarship? https://www.daad.de/entwicklung/studierende_und_alumni/bildung_postgradual/ast/08164.en.html

# There are only two Medicine-related master programs and they are in Public Health. Their full details are on pages 101-108 of the DAAD’s brochure on Scribd.com. You can see the embeded Brochure below starting at page 101 (Master of Science in International Health (Berlin)). Alternatively, you can click here to go directly to page 101 on the Scribd website.

• Certainly there are hundreds of PhD programs in Germany. I think that the DAAD’s website shows these programs. If you visit this page in the DAAD’s website, you can see 1612 programs (These include Bachelor + Master + PhD / Doctorate + Prep Course + Language Course + Short Course, as shown in the left side of the page below). You can see that there are 1612 Programmes at the time I took the screenshot.

You can limit the programs shown by choosing PhD from “Degree/Level”. The number of programs drop to 331 PhD programs.

Limit the “Field of Study” to “Medicine” and the number will drop to 61 PhD programs related to Medicine.

You can then open the page of each program in order to find out the full details about it: Overview, Course Details, Costs/Funding, Requirements, Services, and other information including its website in the respective university and contact information. For example, if you are interested in the following program (Berlin-Brandenburg School for Regenerative Therapies):

Click on it, and then you will arrive at this PhD Program’s page:

The costs/funding page shows the money that you need to pay and available funding sources from the University or outside it:

This page shows other sources of possible funding. Certainly, each one of them have their own criteria. You can visit each one of them to see their requirements.

• One Last thing: DAAD scholarships depend on which country you come from, to see the available DAAD-scholarships for your country, then google for “YOUR CONUNTRY’S Name + DAAD”. For example “Jordan DAAD”:

• Concerning Jordan, visit this page in the Jordan DAAD’s website to see the available scholarships for Jordan. Like the main DAAD’s website, each program has special requirements. You can find them in the DAAD’s website.

Like this:

Three years after graduating from medical school, can a medical doctor have a PhD? In Germany, the answer is “in general” yes. In case a medical doctor is interested in doing a PhD, mainly in basic sciences, then he can directly enter into a PhD program in Germany. I was told that this is the “general rule.” Our certificates, MBBS (Doctor of Medicine, Doctor of Surgery), are considered equal to master in Germany. In other words, you do not need to have done a master in order to enter into a PhD program. A German friend of mine told me this information, and I confirmed it in a famous Facebook page about higher studies in Germany (recommended by DAAD officials in Jordan). I asked my question in “German” here. To be 100% sure, they told me to check with individual universities to find if my MD degree from outside Germany is equivalent to master. However, they confirmed that the general rule is that it is equal. I was interested in a program in a University in Berlin called “Humboldt University of Berlin (wikipedia page).” Therefore, I mailed a department in it. For the year 2013/2014, according to the Times Higher Education World Reputation Rankings (Powered by Thompson Reuter), this university is number 94 in the world:

Source: A page for the Humboldt University at the Times World Ranking Website.

I sent the following email to a department in this university asking if I can enter directly into a PhD program. They replied that my academic background (which is equal to that of all graduates of Mutah Medical School, and that of all graduates of medical schools in Jordan) makes me qualified to “apply for [their] PhD program.”

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Dear Sir or Madam,

I hope that my email will find you doing well. I graduated last June from medical school here in Jordan, Middle East. I have a MBBS (Bacehelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery) [Mutah University Graduates has MBBS. Source: The faculty’s page at Mutah Unviersity Website]. A German friend of me told me that in Germany, those with MBBS could directly do PhD. I asked this question in the Facebook group Research in Germany. They answered with yes… I am interested in a program of yours. May I ask if I may apply for it now that I do not have a master degree and only have an MBBS?

Best regards.

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Dear Jameel K. Hijazeen,

Thank you for your e-mail and your interest in our program. It is correct that a MBBS is equal to a German Master’s degree.With your academic background you are qualified to apply for our PhD program.

If you have any further questions, you are welcome to send me another e-mail or give me a call.

Best regards,J.

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• As I easily noticed, the language of teaching in most programs is in English (Amazing, huh?). As a proof of your English knowledge, universities require certain TOEFL or IELTS scores. In one university, they wrote that it is enough if you can provide them with a certificate from a professor who says that you know a good level of English (I cannot remember the precise characteristics of such a professor).

• The requirements for each program are different. The competition is very high in some programs. In particular, one program asked that you pass an exam on Biology and Chemistry. Many details are present in the websites of each program. You can mail them, and from my experience, they reply quickly.

• The tuition fees are very little as universities are supported by the German goverment. In one PhD program, which consists of six semesters, the tuition fees of each semester are 280 euro, which covers free transportation ticket for the entire semester. Concerning living costs, in Berlin, for example, they estimate living costs to be around 1,000 Euro per month. I read and heard about estimated living costs ranging from 700-1200 euro per month. In one study conducted by HSBC bank, it was concluded that among 13 of the world top countries, it is chepeast for overseas students to study in Germany!!! The list of countries is shown in the figure below:

Living costs in 13 of the top world countries: Australia is the most expensive and Germany is the cheapest! Source: Website of HSBC bank.

• You can get sponsorship from different organizations. I know of two. One is called the KAAD. However, the most famous is called the DAAD (Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst – German Academic Exchange Service). They offer thousands of scholarships every year. They have a central branch of them in Jordan: http://www.daad-jordan.org/en , https://www.facebook.com/daad.jordan ). They hold a free information lecture إستشارة طلابية each month. The lecture is very informative and the explanation is great. It is present by a Dr. Abdelnasser Hindawi. He is very nice, cooperative, and welcomes any questions on the email of DAAD Amman info@daad-jordan.org. He replies quickly and with full details. The nearest lecture is today, Tuesday, 22.04.2014, at 05:00 PM in Goethe Institute, Amman, https://www.facebook.com/daad.jordan/posts/10153964741815068?stream_ref=10 You can follow the DAAD Jordan’s facebook page for future lectures. The last 6-8 lectures Ads that I saw stated that the lecture would take place on a Tuesday). The last time I checked, the health-related scholarships they have were two master programs in Public Health. The master programs can be finished in one year. They require however a practical experience of at least two years, among other things. The tuition fees of one program, as I remember, are about 14,000 Euro. They are all covered by the DAAD. For full details of these two programs, and all other scholarships to Jordanians, see this PDF by the DAAD Jordan: http://www.scribd.com/doc/147312520/Overview-DAAD-Funding-Jordan

Doing a PhD does not mean that you will continue your life in teaching. This will be very important in your CVs. I know some people who took masters in order to increase their chances of being accepted for residency in the USA. However, some scholarship program will tie candidates with researching about a topic that will help his/her country and with showing “genuine” interest of returning back to his/her country. For example, Yousef Jameel Scholarships:

Humboldt-University is offering five doctoral scholarships with support of the Yousef Jameel Scholarship Fund. Students of Arabic countries, Malaysia and Indonesia are eligible for the scholarships. The scholarships are awarded for a period of three years and commence on October 1. The stipend awarded is in the amount of 1350 Euros per month, plus materials expenses. To be eligible for this scholarship, English and German skills are required. Women and disabled students are encouraged to apply. Applications should be submitted till 15th July 2014.

*** Note: I based little information above on my own short experience. I tried my best to put references where possible. Please feel free to make any corrections for the benefit of me and future visitors to this page ***